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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blood Wedding, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Passion, and Control
History and Fate
Violence and Revenge
Ownership and Unhappiness
Summary
Analysis
The Bridegroom enters his home and tells his mother he’s going out to the vineyard, declining her offer of food because he plans to eat grapes off the vine. When he asks her to hand him a knife, though, she becomes darkly worried, saying, “The knife, the knife…Damn all of them and the scoundrel who invented them.” Hearing this, the Bridegroom urges her to talk about something else, but she pushes on, listing off weapons like “shotguns” and “pistols.” She even mentions “mattocks and pitchforks,” complaining about anything capable of hurting people. Rambling on in this worried manner, she makes veiled allusions to a man who visits his “inherited” vineyards and never comes back, except as a dead body waiting for her to anoint it with a “palm-leaf.”
When the Bridegroom’s mother worries aloud about the danger of knives—or anything that can cause pain—García Lorca draws the audience’s attention to the ways in which violence can influence how a person moves through life. Although the playwright hasn’t yet revealed what happened in this old woman’s past, it becomes clear that she is deeply troubled by the fact that something as insignificant as a knife or “pitchfork” can be used to take away a person’s life. What’s more, when she offhandedly mentions “inherited” vineyards, García Lorca suggests that the Bridegroom’s mother values the importance of ownership, ultimately setting the foundation for the play’s exploration of materialism, greed, and family legacy.
Themes
Tired of his mother’s morbid attitude, the Bridegroom asks if she’s finished talking about such bleak matters, but she only says, “If I lived to be a hundred, I wouldn’t speak of anything else. First your father. He had the scent of carnation for me, and I enjoyed him for three short years. Then your brother.” Going on, she asks him if it’s “fair” that such small objects—like guns and knives—“can put an end to a man.” When the Bridegroom tries to convince her to change the subject, she ignores him by complaining that the men who killed his father and brother are still alive. “What is the gaol?” she asks, referring to the prison. “They eat there, they smoke there, they play instruments there.” Meanwhile, she upholds, her loved ones are rotting in the ground.
Again, the Bridegroom’s mother expresses her disdain for violence, framing it as futile and needlessly brutal. At the same time, though, she inadvertently advocates for the same kind of revenge-oriented mindset that leads to violence in the first place, since she implies that the men who killed her loved ones ought to suffer the same fate. When she complains that the murderers are still alive in jail, it becomes clear that she’d rather see them dead than locked up. In this way, her thirst for retribution gives birth to the same mentality that perpetuates the kind of violence she supposedly abhors.
Themes
Fed up, the Bridegroom asks his mother if she wants him to murder their enemies, who are living out their remaining days in jail. “No,” his mother says, adding that the only reason she can’t stop talking about the matter is because she worries every time the Bridegroom leaves the house. How, she asks him, is she supposed to stay calm when he ventures out into the world with a knife, the very same thing that killed his family members? “I wish you wouldn’t go out to the fields,” she admits.
When the Bridegroom asks his mother if she wants him to kill their enemies, he picks up on the fact that her desire to exact revenge gives rise to the same kind of bloodthirstiness that took his family members away in the first place. Because he emphasizes this point, she ends up backing down, admitting that she doesn’t want him to do anything of the sort, though one gets the sense this isn’t because she wants to spare her enemies, but because she doesn’t want her son to put himself in danger. In keeping with this, she tells him that she doesn’t like it when he leaves the house, thereby demonstrating how thoroughly a person’s traumatic history can alter the way he or she moves through life in the present. Indeed, the Bridegroom’s mother finds it difficult to relax after having lost her husband and son many years ago.
Themes
Changing the subject, the Bridegroom reminds his mother that he is soon to be married. Although the old woman knows his future wife—whom she hasn’t met—is a “hard-working” woman, she appears skeptical, thinking that it’s all so “sudden.” “I’ll be left alone,” she says. “Only you are left to me now and I’m sorry to see you going.” In response, the Bridegroom says she’ll be coming with him and his new wife, but she refuses, saying she has to stay on the family land because that’s where her husband and son are buried. “If I leave, one of the Felixes could die, one of the family of murderers, and they’d bury him next to mine,” she says. This idea deeply troubles the Bridegroom’s mother, as she says she would “dig” up her enemies with her own fingernails if this ever happened.
Once more, the Bridegroom’s mother clings to her hatred of her enemies, a bitterness that greatly affects the way she leads her life. Although the men who murdered her loved ones are in jail, she refuses to leave her land because she fears somebody in the Felix family might be buried next to her husband or son. As such, something that happened many years ago impedes her ability to live a carefree life in the present.
Themes
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Moving on, the Bridegroom’s mother asks her son about his future wife, saying, “She had another young man, didn’t she?” Answering this question, the Bridegroom says he doesn’t know, though he adds that he doesn’t think this is the case. Still, though, the old woman would like to know more about the Bride, expressing her desire to hear about the girl’s mother, though the Bridegroom brushes this off. Deciding to lighten up, then, the Bridegroom’s mother turns her attention to what gifts they should bestow upon the Bride, deciding to bring the young woman earrings and “patterned stockings.”
Despite her obvious hesitancy regarding her son’s marriage, the Bridegroom’s mother finally stops focusing on morbid or pessimistic notions of violence and revenge. However, it’s worth noting that what she turns her attention to isn’t the fact that her son is in love—rather, she concerns herself with what she should buy the Bride. In this way, García Lorca shows the audience the old woman’s investment in ownership, a concept she uses as a way of investing herself in the Bridegroom’s marriage without actually having to overcome her misgivings.
Themes
When the Bridegroom goes out to the vineyard, his mother’s neighbor enters and falls into conversation with the old woman. “I often think your son and mine are better off where they are, sleeping, resting, no chance of being crippled,” she says at one point, before the two friends begin to talk about the Bridegroom’s wedding. When the mother asks her neighbor if she knows anything about the Bride, the neighbor tells her that the young woman lives in relative isolation on a far-off plot of land with her father. When the Bridegroom’s mother asks about the Bride’s mother, the neighbor tells her that she’s dead and that she never truly loved her husband. What’s more, she reveals that the Bride was in love with Leonardo Felix when she was fifteen, but that Leonardo ended up marrying the girl’s cousin instead.
The fact that the Bride used to be in a relationship with Leonardo Felix will certainly pose a dilemma for the Bridegroom’s mother, since she is so hung up on distancing herself and her son from the Felix family. As such, the audience will soon see how much this feud will interfere with the old woman’s ability to go along with an otherwise positive scenario—after all, her son is clearly happy, so she will have to make a choice about whether or not to stand between him and his new wife.
Themes
The Bridegroom’s mother is distraught to learn that her son is about to marry a woman who was in a relationship with Leonardo, a member of the Felix family. However, the neighbor reminds her that Leonardo was only eight years old when the trouble emerged between the two families. As such, she urges the old woman not to tell the Bridegroom about the Bride’s past relationship, saying, “Don’t stand in the way of your son’s happiness.” “I won’t say anything,” the mother agrees, but then shouts out, “Things!...” Before she can finish her sentence, though, the neighbor stands up and says farewell.
Unsurprisingly, the Bridegroom’s mother clearly finds it difficult to simply accept that her future daughter-in-law used to be in love with a member of the Felix family. However, the neighbor wisely advises her to leave the matter alone, since the Bridegroom is quite happy. As such, the old woman agrees not to say anything to her son, though the fact that she immediately shouts, “Things!...” right after vowing not to say anything indicates that it’s all she can do to keep quiet. And although it’s unclear what the Bridegroom’s mother exactly means to say when she shouts, García Lorca shows through the mother’s outburst how hard it is for her to ignore her family’s embattled history.
Themes
